The Younger Wife by Sally Hepworth caught my interest from the beginning and kept me guessing until the end. Imagine your father marries a woman younger than you - would you trust she's marrying him for the right reasons? Or then, when family secrets and mysteries come to light, do you stop trusting your own judgment? This was a fast-paced, expertly executed family drama. Highly recommended!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review an advanced reader's copy of this book.

5 stars 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟Very good! Will definitely be recommending this book on my Instagram bookstagram account.

I loved Sally Hepworth’s book The Good Sister. I rated that one 5/5. Unfortunately this one fell flat for me, rounding up my 2.5 to a 3/5 because I do feel like Sally Hepworth is a good writer…I just feel there were so many missed opportunities or greatness in this book.

There was a lot of potential and all sorts of things that just weren’t capitalized upon.

For instance, Rachel’s dark secret. She held it close to her without telling a soul for YEARS. However she eventually tells those who become closest to her and that’s it. Nothing really happens with this big secret. For this particular secret…it’s a big deal and prob could’ve been either more focused on in the story or just cut entirely because it literally has no importance when it comes to the plot.

Was Stephen a bad husband/parented? Was there abuse!l? Were the characters delusional? Who knows!?

Fiona Arthur…her character really didn’t end up being that important for the trajectory of the story. Another missed opportunity.

Does Heather (the younger wife) have a dark secret for why she is with an older man? Is she a gold digger!? Nope, nothing much there either. She has a secret but again, it’s not anything major.

Tully has some serious issues with kleptomania that sorta starts developing into something good for the story…when Tully and Heather bond a bit during a therapeutic scene returning items that were stolen. This helped with forging a bond between the daughter and soon to be step mother.

I didn’t hate the book but was unsatisfied. I’d absolutely read another book by Sally Hepworth again…but this one was a “miss” for me.

How would you feel if your Dad tells you he’s engaged, to a woman younger than you are, oh an by the way, he is divorcing you mother with dementia? I know how’d I feel and happy would not be the word, but maybe that’s just me, maybe not. I’d definitely be suspicious of this new woman in Dad’s life.

Tully and Rachel are facing just this situation with their father. This is a family just as disfunctional as most families. They have secrets, they have their own personal issues that they refuse to admit to, and they also want to dig into this woman’s reason for marrying Dad. Is she a gold-digger? You’ll have to read the book to uncover all the delightful twists and turns this story takes.

I did enjoy this book but it was a bit of a slower read for me. I would definitely recommend you give it a read.

Thank you to #netgalley, #stsimonpublishing and #sallyhepworth for allowing me the opportunity to read this book!

So…. I’m still thinking about this one. I absolutely love Sally Hepworth’s writing. This one is told from 3 women’s perspectives—2 sisters & the new wife’s. I really enjoyed their varying points of view. I definitely wouldn’t call this a thriller, but it was an excellent family drama. I wasn’t *quite* on board with the ending, some of the characters actions didn’t really ring true, but I *did* enjoy the ambiguity. All in all, another winner for Sally!

Sally has done it again! WOW! I love her functional dysfunctional families. I'm a Sally Hepworth fan for life.

I love the sisters perspective. So many twists and turns.

I raced through this book, it was a well-plotted family mystery that tackled some tricky topics very adeptly. It definitely will appeal to fans of the author's previous suspense novels, as well as fans of Liane Moriarty.

This book follows three young women, all around the same age. The difference? Two of them are sisters, one is their father's newest love. What's the issue? Well, their father is still married to their mom and she's in a care facility for dementia.

With their father's new girlfriend, comes some new information. Their mom can't speak clearly anymore but the new girl can. Family secrets are dangerous and eventually will surface... will it be too late?

I loved this book so much. I enjoyed the different point of views throughout the story and I loved each of the characters and their quirks. I would've given this 5 stars if the ending was more shocking...but I did see it coming. It was a fairly quick read!

Triggers:
Domestic voilence
Covid 19

I didn't want to put the book down. Definitely will be reading another of Sally Hepworth's books in the future!

I love Sally Hepworth's books. She is such a fantastic writer who weaves some incredible stories with amazing characters and fun twists.

This one is the same. The Younger Wife begins with Stephen Aston getting married. Again. He has 2 grown-up daughters, Racheal and Tully and now he's marrying Heather who is younger than them. They can't wrap their heads around this development considering their father is still married to their mother who is in a care facility for dementia.

Things take a dark turn when the daughters start questioning whether they truly know their father. Is there some secrets which they need to know? What seems like a close knit family doesn't seem to be anymore when the layers unravel.

Both Rachel and Tully have secrets of their own and traumas which have not been dealt with.

Sally Hepworth always writes about relevant topics. This book is no different. It includes mental health, sexual abuse, domestic abuse etc.

I could not wait to see how the story unfolded.I wasn't a fan of the end but that did not take away from the book. It was a great read.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I love Sally Hepworth, and her latest novel was no exception.

A wedding is taking place in a church. Demented prior wife shows up and climbs the dais, disrupting the service. Off-stage, a loud noise ensues and ...(oooops there was an unintentional spoiler in my earlier review)

...several months earlier, two Sisters meet their father in a restaurant for lunch and are struck with the unexpected and unwelcome announcement that pop is getting married to a women their own age. The biggest hitch is that he is already hitched to their mother who is now living in an institution caring for sufferers of dementia.

Over the months resentment toward bride/stepmother-to-be is replaced by a genuine camaraderie, as sisters and future bride reveal troubling pasts and suspicions regarding the true nature of the Patriarch. The characters of the women were interesting and I found myself invested in their stories.

This book goes in an unexpected direction towards the end, and although there is a healing process for some there is a vagueness regarding the true nature of the Father/Groom. This uncertainty is triggered by, among other things, the unreliable assertions of the demented prior wife, and the readers are left to reach their own conclusions regarding the father's/groom's behavior.

Inconclusive endings do not unsettle me, so I was fine with the ambiguity. There is an interesting epilogue that does nothing to resolve the ambiguity but cleverly answers a question that could not be answered within the time-frame of the book.

Thank you NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for and ARC and opportunity to review the latest book by one of my favorite authors. It did not disappoint.

Another great book with family drama from Sally Hepworth. There are more layers to the family members that their lives are not as perfect as they seem.

Successful heart surgeon Stephen Aston is getting married again, but his daughters Tully and Rachel are less than thrilled—considering Heather, the bride to be, is their age and he just happens to still be married—to Pam, suffering from dementia in a care facility.

Their wedding ends tragically—in the first chapter—and the novel unfolds in the points of view of Heather, Tully, and Rachel, as family secrets and lies are exposed.

This was my favorite Sally Hepworth yet. She dives into heavy topics—domestic abuse, rape, kleptomania, alcoholism, dementia—and takes the reader on one twisty ride, including the ending, which will make you question everything you just read. Extra points for including Bluey.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for inviting me to read this title in exchange for a review.

Wow, this book left me questioning everything I had just read. What a plot twist. I read this story particularly fast because the characters were well written and full of emotion. Turmoil and triumph in every page. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

Thank you Netgalley for this arc

I think I have now become a Sally Hepworth super fan after reading this book. Having loved her previous books The Mother in Law and The Other Sister I had high hopes for The Younger Wife. It didn't disappoint. I was hooked from the first chapter, and then the characters reeled me in. I found myself reading past my bedtime in the hopes that I would be able to figure out just what happened when the happy couple went to sign their marriage certificate. Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC in exchange for a review. This book will be published in North American in April 2022.

The Younger Wife follows Rachel and Tully, two sisters who are struggling with their dad divorcing their mom, who is in a care facility for dementia, so that he can marry Heather, a women who is around the same age as his daughters. They are convinced that Heather is a gold digger, after their father's money.... but are things different than they appear?

If you are a fan of Sally Hepworth, this book will not disappoint. From the moment you pick it up, you will not want to put it down as you start to uncover all of the secrets the Aston family has. I will note, I think this book does need a TW for domestic abuse/gaslighting so if you struggle with that, this is not a book I would pick up.

Thanks, Netgalley for the gifted copy of this book.

❄️Five Star NetGalley November Arc Review❄️

The Younger Wife by @sallyhepworth
US publication date: April 5, 2022

Featuring Mr. Frost with his younger wife of 9 years but who’s counting. I loved both the Aussie cover (above) and the US cover (below)

One sentence synopsis; Somebody gets injured at a wedding and we spend the next year finding out who did it and who was hurt.

First of all I want to commend the author with touching on life during Covid 19 but without smacking us in the face with it.

I truly became invested in all of these characters and found likability in all of them which is rare in a domestic suspense novel. I thought about these characters in between each reading session and continue to after I finished.

The humor in the book served it well and I while I had a few questions about a pretty ambiguous ending Sally was so kind to clarify them for me and also explained some of the questions are more defined in the final edit copy of the book.

The book mentions a hot water bottle which I believe to be an Aussie thing but you must read the authors note explaining its symbolism and if you’re lucky enough to catch her aunt Gwen in her stories she’s an absolute doll.

I can’t stop thinking about the chicken lemon feta pie in the book and want to try and create one now.

This is certainly not a thriller so I’d advice readers to go into the book with that in mind but it is top of the top in the domestic suspense or family drama category which is a hard to impress trope for me.

A huge thank you to @netgalley and @stmartinspress for my copy in exchange for my honest review

❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ from Mrs. Frost

#TheYoungerWife #sallyhepworth #netgalley #netgalleynovember #arc #advancedreaderscopy #bookreview #domesticthriller #trophywife #ereader #aussiebooks #novemberkindleclearout

I love Sally Hepworth books. This one did not disappoint. Steven and his daughters and the wife with dementia are a story that never stops. She always take the story around every avenue. You think you have it figured out but she always surprises you. The one was was just as amazing as the others of hers that I have read.

4.5 stars

Whewwww.

This was a heck of a read for me!

I finished this pretty quickly because I needed to know how it all wound up at the end.

The story switches POV between a few of the main characters and it was done well enough that I wasn't annoyed by it nor did it feel super gimmicky. I think I liked Rachel most of all in the story but that may be because I can relate to her most of all of the MCs.

The ending was mildly annoying but that is par for the course, the book was still enjoyable.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

By about 1/10 of the way through, I really didn’t think I was going to like this book. I didn’t love the COVID references, and while clearly I don’t have an issue with social justice, throw away lines referring to “wokeness” never sit right with me -maybe I get a sense of trying too hard? The further I got, though, the more I fell in love. The characters are real and wonderful and I was rooting for so many of them (I would have loved more fleshing out of the side characters, though). A great little domestic thriller in a crowded arena. 3.5/5

Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advance digital copy.

Stephen, a successful doctor, announces his engagement to his younger girlfriend, Heather. Stephen’s daughters, Rachel and Tully, are not too thrilled with the idea – Heather is younger than them, and well, their dad is still married to their mother, who is in a nursing home suffering from dementia.
The story is told from the point of view of Heather, Rachel, and Tully, and an unknown fourth narrator (unknown for the first part of the book).
There are a lot of issues covered in this book – sexual assault survival, kleptomania, alcoholism, domestic violence, and more. Many are not delved into deeply and when some of the characters overcome, it seems a little bit unbelievable.
Darcy was too perfect.
Even though some things were sort of skimmed over, the book was very readable and I tore through it pretty quickly.
Then came the ending. <spoiler> Did he or didn’t he? I don’t mind ambiguous endings, but this ending painted all of the women in the book as either delusional or in denial. </spoiler>
This book was listed as mystery/thriller. I don’t agree with this categorization – it is a domestic drama.
Overall, I ended up being lukewarm about this book.